Imminence
by 76suzume
Summary: Time-travel AU Falling into the toad oil pond was a big mistake, but soon Naruto finds himself enjoying what it brought him. Every cloud has a silver lining; just don't forget to watch the stormy side. The past is a dark and scary place. I ADOPTED THIS FROM STALKER OF STORIES. She gets all the credit for the story. I just fixed up some things. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! I just want you to know that this story was originally Stalker of Stories's. She abandoned it a long time ago, and i decided to adopt it. If you want to give credit then give it to her. I just made a few tiny adjustments. I will try and update soon.**

**Disclaimer: I Do Not  own Naruto! (If i did then Kakashi would have treated his students equally, Sasuke wouldn't have left and Team Seven would be a big happy family! I love Team Seven Family fanfics. If you have any ideas send them and I will make them happen.)  
**

**Anyway, Enjoy!**

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Chapter 1

He really should have paid attention to the old frog, Naruto decided immediately. It was the middle of the night, Myoboku was deep in sleep, and he had been stupid. He was supposed to _only _attempt to mold sage chakra when the old frog was there. Needless to say, he wasn't.

To make matters worse, Naruto had tripped over a loose... well, something. The fact of the matter was, he had tripped straight into the frog oil pond, and he couldn't swim in it.

As he felt his skin moving, he cursed himself. How could he bring Sasuke back like this? How could he avenge his teacher? He was going to be a stone toad at the bottom of a frog oil pond, and there was nothing that could change that fact.

The last thought he had before blanking out was a simple, _Damn..._

Conversely, the first thing he thought upon opening his eyes to a bright midsummer sky and familiar trees was, _Thank the gods..._

And he was certain that some god truly was responsible. Wasn't he supposed to be dead, turned into a stone toad totem to decorate the yard for training humans to mold sage chakra? The fact that he was seeing a sky and could feel the gentle breeze on his skin was enough to convince him that _something_ had happened to prevent it. He knew those trees so well, too. They were the trees of the Land of Fire, and most particularly they were the trees surrounding Hidden Leaf Village, his home.

Why he was in the Leaf anyway? Did the toads reject him for disobeying and trying to train on his own? It could be, but they could have given him _some_ warning.

He'd always been impatient; it was part of who Naruto Uzumaki had crafted himself to be. The villagers didn't care if he was mean or kind, polite or rude, or even if he was purple with yellow polka-dots and green hair – he had certainly tried. So he had made himself at least seem to deserve a small amount of the punishment they dished out, for his own peace of mind. He'd always known his father had been a hero of the Kyuubi attack, and his mother died giving birth to him. He couldn't stand the thought that he could possibly be punished for some fault in the parents; if he deserved it, he couldn't blame them even in the back of his mind.

Sighing, Naruto hefted his arms to get into a sitting position... and noticed something very disturbing. Well, it was something he realized he should have noticed right off the bat if he hadn't been so relieved to be alive. His arms were short, and his clothes were feeling very much baggy about him. On the bright side, he could tell that he hadn't been turned into a frog, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to bend his arms quite that way.

Taking a quick stock of his body, visually, Naruto was horrified to find that his size was on par with that of a small child. Like, say, himself at age six, seven tops, which was the size of a normal child at age five if he was lucky. Grimacing, he pulled himself to his feet, not bothering to try and stop the large orange pants from falling off of his body, not even the boxers since his shirt went down past his knees anyway. Instead, he was practical as he tried to be when possible, and ripped the pants off at the knee. At his current size, they would make good pants, if very baggy on his small frame, and the ripped material could easily be ripped further to make a tied belt. His jacket had to be lost, but the t-shirt... he'd manage. His headband, unfortunately, was nowhere to be found, but he could get a new one from Tsunade easily enough.

Heaving a sigh, Naruto took his first step – barefoot given that his sandals were about a dozen sizes to large – he noticed an interesting turn of events; he was very unbalanced. That wasn't to say he was totally uncoordinated, just that he felt like a stranger in his own skin. He hadn't been this short in... how long had it been? Eight, maybe nine years. He just needed to adjust, that was all.

Before he'd even gotten away from the clearing, he was already getting the rhythm of it. The young genin (when would he ever take another chuunin exam?) was confident that he could make his way to the Leaf in mere minutes at this pace; he knew the clearing well, had often escaped to it as a child when the village was too much. It was just outside the training areas and within what was technically still the Leaf, so he knew precisely where he was. He could find Tsunade and get her to fix it.

Except that when the village proper came into view, Naruto immediately noticed something was very off. The Hokage Monument was missing two very important faces.

Naruto prided himself on being reasonable in the weirdest of situations. When Mizuki had chased him, only a few minutes after being informed that he, Naruto Uzumaki, was hated not by his own virtue or any one person's but because he had the most powerful demon sealed into his gut, he had stayed behind to help Iruka instead of running off for a second time. Upon seeing Myoboku, he hadn't wigged out like Sakura probably would have (well, he thought she would, but Sakura had never been entirely predictable in the best of circumstances) and had instead been properly amazed, but still ready to train.

That pride, however, wasn't doing him much good, because the idea of the Monument without the faces of the man who had cursed him with the fox and the woman he had come to think of as a mother of sorts (even if he had only seen her face up there for a little while) was... well, it pretty much stopped all thought process then and there.

After several minutes' worth of panicking, Naruto calmed slightly, enough to know that, whatever was happening, he had to get to the Hokage Tower, especially if it was a genjutsu. Going to where he would be most expected to would mean an earlier release. If it _wasn't_ a genjutsu... well, he _really_ didn't want to think of what that might mean, both for him and the world at large. However, being a shinobi, he did keep that possibility in the back of his mind, just in case he found out that that _was_ the case so he wouldn't be running around like a headless chicken.

The gates to the village proper were open, as was normal for midday, and Naruto managed to slip in behind some merchants without getting noticed. He barely noticed that the shinobi guarding the gates seemed terribly weary, and there seemed to be more of the Leaf's forces hopping from rooftop to rooftop going places than usual. Whoever set up the genjutsu had apparently only seen it at it's most chaotic.

Well, maybe not _most _chaotic since the attack by Sound and Sand was far worse.

Naruto ran through the city as fast as his small body would go, which was actually pretty fast since he charged each leap with chakra. It had taken all of five seconds to realize how the size and lack of physical strength of his current state would affect his chakra reserves, but he could easily reason that, even if he _didn't_ have the Kyuubi to draw on, he figured he still had enough chakra for maybe the average jounin, simply because he was Naruto. There was this sort of tingle, though, in the air around him that made him feel like he could go on for quite a while.

When a hand grabbed him by the collar of his too-large shirt, Naruto had to top abruptly before he choked himself... or ripped said shirt and had to go topless. That would be stupid. He was promptly dropped back onto the rooftop he had been about to leap from and turned quickly on his heel, leaping back several steps to eye his illusory opponent. The white eyes with bulging veins screamed Hyuuga, but it wasn't one that he knew, though if he looked, Naruto figured he looked sort of like a less girly version of Neji, like most of the male Hyuuga in their teens did. The chuunin vest was a nice touch.

"A bit young to be jumping on rooftops, kid," the Hyuuga snorted, turning his Byakugan off. "You aren't even old enough to be in the academy yet; you can't be more than five years old! Shouldn't you be walking with the civilians? Rooftops are restricted access, shinobi only."

Naruto scowled, which he knew would look utterly ridiculous on his childish face. "I can use the roofs just as well as you can, bastard," he snapped irritably. The guy's attitude definitely reminded him of Neji, pre-ass-whooping. He turned to leave and sensed that the hand was coming back and ducked under it, rolling away between the guy's legs.

"Stop that!"

White eyes locked with azure, the former holding a sort of curiosity. He thought he heard the word "henge" but he couldn't be sure. So the illusion was thinking that he was under an illusion? No, that made no sense what-so-ever. Some shinobi of the genjutsu had stopped running and were watching the scene with thinly veiled interest. If this weren't an illusion, Naruto could understand that interest; he was, after all, child-sized and standing up to a Hyuuga. He had also dodged said bastard's attempt to grab him, which had been very quick. But it _was_ a genjutsu, and Naruto wanted to get whatever was supposed to happen over with before...

Before what? And why would he be under a genjutsu in the first place? He sighed internally, but kept his senses open. The slight hum in the air that seemed to flow straight through him buzzed suddenly and he jerked in surprise, finding that the Hyuuga flew by him from behind and through who he thought was the Hyuuga. Now that he looked Naruto could sort of see through the simple academy-style clone.

This inspired him as to how he could escape. Molding his hands easily into a ram seal, he murmured, "Shadow clone jutsu," and smirked as quite a few plumes of smoke went up around him. He hadn't made too many, though more than he had meant to, and felt the humming grow in volume as he molded his chakra for some reason, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that the Hyuuga and surrounding shinobi (the group had increased by quite a bit) were gaping at the display for reason unknown. They were part of the illusion; they knew he wasn't really a little kid!

The clones scattered in all directions, the real Naruto going on a path to his right instead of heading directly to the Hokage's Tower. Several of the other ninjas jumped in and made grabs at the clones, and all were especially surprised when they actually grabbed something.

"They aren't illusions!" One of the shinobi gaped as he grasped the arm of a clone. Naruto watched as he clung to the wall using chakra. That seemed a lot easier than it should have been. "That kid... he used an A-ranked jutsu! Anyone know who he is?"

"Let go, you bastards!" The clones all shouted at once, all trying to wrench their grasps from the men in various manners. Naruto grinned. They would never be able to tell him apart from the clones even if they knew what to look for.

"Let's take them all to the Hokage," a kunoichi posited. "If we can't tell them from the original, we can't know which one to bring. He doesn't look like he'd tell us himself, either. Surely the Hokage will know who this kid is." Naruto furrowed his brow. If this was a genjutsu... no, he shouldn't even be thinking about the hows and the whys. He was supposed to be dead, but he wasn't. He was supposed to be 15, but he wasn't. He would let his clones go and do it, he knew they would come to the same conclusion (they were essentially him, after all) and when whatever was to happen happened, they could dismiss themselves and revert back to him.

Maybe all that training with Pervy Sage _wasn't_ just a big waste like Sasuke had made it seem. While the toad sage had neglected to ever mention the best part of his favorite technique, he had helped Naruto cultivate the reality of the clones. They already looked like him, thought like him, and acted like him, but Naruto had gone beyond the usual and even managed to make it seem like his clones had chakra coils to even a Byakugan (which took a hell of a lot more effort and chakra control than most would be willing to go to when theirs was as bad as Naruto's).

The clones had also done him a favor beyond winning his escape and making it possible to scout out this weird genjutsu (he didn't dare question why he could use jutsu at all in it); he got to see just how intricate it was. Mind, he'd never find a way out on his own, but if a clone made it out, they could dismiss and tell him how... would it work like that? He didn't know, didn't care. Naruto just wanted to get back to training at Myoboku so he could kick the ass of whoever killed Jiraiya.

The assembled shinobi passed off clones to people who were either heading for the Hokage's tower or else had nothing to do, most carrying two pint-sized clones at a time. Meanwhile, Naruto walked the streets like a civilian before getting back to the gate and dashing out as fast as possible. He would keep away from the Tower for the moment and make sure that in his miniaturized form – he had a feeling that he really had become a kid, physically – wouldn't affect him overly much.

In the Hokage Tower, a crowd of twelve children sat in various positions on the floor, looking bored. All of the identical children had spiky blond hair, more yellow than anything else, that was sticking out in all directions. Bright blue eyes, sort of between sky and ocean blue, with horizontal slits for pupils shown brightly under the yellow fringe. Those eyes were deep-set and ringed thinly with red, set just above whisker-like scars on the cheeks, three pair.

A highly distinctive appearance, to be certain. The shinobi present couldn't help but think the brat had some sort of doujutsu, though what they didn't know. Not one of the three big ones, certainly.

They were all completely identical, and none of them were the real boy they mirrored. Not that the four ANBU, one Hyuuga, and one Hokage knew that; they figured they had captured all of the clones as well as the real boy.

"Very talented for a child," the Hokage nodded solemnly. When the group of children had seen him as they were carried in, they had gaped at the sight of the aging man in Hokage's robes. He was a older man, his hair thinning on top and his face starting to wrinkle a bit, but he exuded an aura of strength that made it apparent why he was Hokage. To Naruto, he was also very much dead. "And you are sure there are no illusions on him? Not even a simple henge?"

"I'm positive, Lord Hokage," the Hyuuga reported, the same Hyuuga who had initially caught the kid. "When I first saw a small child – not even old enough to start at the Academy – hopping over the rooftops like a seasoned shinobi, I activated my Byakugan immediately to make sure. He is indeed a child. Around perhaps five years, I would wager. I also cannot tell the difference between the real child and his clones; the chakra split must have been equal between them all. How any child can have such reserves is beyond me."

"We're right here, you know," one clone snorted, adjusting its position to lay out on the floor at the same instant all its fellows did. "Asking each other questions won't tell you anything about us, will it?" Actually, Naruto was wondering what the creator of the genjutsu already did know. Obviously that he was from the Leaf, but aside from that... Well, Naruto had never heard of any genjutsu like this one, but it wasn't saying much considering genjutsu were his worst techniques... discounting his version of the henge, though his way wasn't quite so illusory.

So that probably didn't count as a genjutsu anyway, but still!

The Hokage chuckled, smiling slightly at the crowd of clones, looking for all intents and purposes like a kindly grandfather or favorite uncle. "Forgive me for that. My, you are a spirited one, aren't you? A strong, talented boy," he said. Naruto knew the tactic, the "get the kid to loosen him up through compliments" trick, but it was still working on the clones, at least a little bit, much to their consternation. "Would you mind telling me which of you is the real one?"

A clone to the left sent an impish grin at the Hokage. "The number you are trying to reach is unavailable at the moment. Please leave your name and number after the beep," the clone informed him easily. "Beep."

The Hyuuga seemed angry. "You mean that you are _all_ clones? That Leaf shinobi failed to catch a _child_?"

"Yup," a third clone replied. "Some kunoichi almost had him, but he swapped with one of the other clones and got away. That one 'popped'. It's pretty pathetic when you think about it; I mean, there aren't very many of us, and we suck at suppressing our chakra."

Before anyone in the room could blink, clone #3 had a kunai sticking out of its head, and then it blinked before poofing out of existence. The kunai clattered to the ground. After a moment, Hyuuga – who had been the one to throw said kunai in a fit of rage – stepped forward and picked the kunai up again, sending a withering glare at all of the clones who just grinned impishly at him. They had all learned the lesson of what a shadow clone could do long ago, so they all knew that the original copy had just downloaded the knowledge of the illusion containing a living (and at least twenty years younger) Third Hokage.

"Hizashi, you will control yourself," the Hokage ordered with ease, his eyes sliding away from the young man to the cluster of clone-children before him. "How much longer will you all last? For a child to create so many, you must not have very much chakra remaining."

The clones looked pensive for a moment, all sitting again instead of lounging before one of them nodded and glanced up. "The boss split his chakra about thirty ways so that he couldn't be caught by the Byakugan, but his reserves would have replenished by the time we got here," clone #5 explained. "I'd say we all have enough chakra to last the rest of the day if we don't actually do anything." For Naruto it wasn't exactly an impressive amount, but even though his size had certainly effected his reserves, the clones found they had more chakra to mold than they had expected, and it didn't feel quite as blue as usual, nor did it feel purple or red like when the Kyuubi chakra in his system increased. Normally such a small quantity of clones could last at twice as long provided Naruto didn't go to sleep when doing an even split.

A few hours was still more than most could pass off – for the few who could use the technique was ease, the average was ten clones for ten minutes at an even split, fewer with less without it – and the shock was evident on the face of the Hokage. It was well known that Naruto was a chakra monster though, so his clones couldn't see why such surprise would be incorporated to the illusion.

"I see," the Professor turned to his large windows that overlooked the Leaf. "Hizashi, leave if you would, and don't mention the boy to anyone. I will speak with him alone." Alone, as the clones knew, did not count the four ANBU members who were hiding in the room at strategic points to take out any threats to the safety of their Kage. "Hawk, Cat, Horse, Dragon, that means you as well." Or maybe it did.

In the space of ten seconds, the Naruto clones found themselves sitting on the floor of the Hokage's personal office (a place they were all intimately familiar with) with only the monkey summoner himself for company. They all fidgeted slightly; it was such a strange illusion! No one knew that the Third had been in the habit of dismissing his ANBU guards when Naruto came to visit, not even Iruka. Of course, the Third's genjutsu wouldn't know it either, but it was still an odd coincidence.

Actually, most of the clones had come to a conclusion, one that was very strange, but it was a conclusion none the less. Besides, Naruto had never been much for logic, common sense, and the like because quite simply they had never actually applied to him. Common sense dictated that newborn babies did not have demons sealed into them; logic dictated that small children were not ostracized by adults and children alike. They dictated that teenagers didn't die and wake up in a body that would fit the average five year old. Or that he have these weird rings around his eyes like Gaara, let alone that they were slit without Kyuubi chakra, and sideways at that! There was no logic to his situation, even the skewed Naruto-logic that applied only to him. If he had somehow been saved by the frogs, he would not have been captured by enemies unknown and placed in a Leaf genjutsu that was so weird.

And the circumstances were so unbelievable that, really, what other options remained?

"Hey, Old Man, are there are any jutsu that take you back in time?" One of the clones asked. Clone number five had "poofed" himself to give the conclusion to Naruto as it decided that it was thought out enough to share. Any clones thinking of something else were automatically updated to the situation and found the conclusion no stranger than anything else in the life of Naruto Uzumaki.

"Time travel techniques? None that I have heard of," the old man blinked. Obviously he hadn't expected to have that be the first thing the clones would state, but they merely deflated. So then there was – as of yet – no explanation. But time travel... it seemed the only way. And wasn't Neji's dad named Hizashi Hyuuga? That chuunin had rather looked like Neji after all. "What brought that on?"

Clone number two sent a look to his compatriots – if clones could be considered as such – before taking the helm. If the others thought of something, it would be mentioned. Naruto didn't hold much stock in social graces anyway.

"Just curious," Clone number two shrugged. "You weren't saying anything, you know? Wanted to break the ice and all that. What did you want to know?" It was better to be in this position in his opinion.

"Yes, yes, I was simply thinking," the old man laughed it off. His pipe was in his mouth for a puff before he continued. "You are quite remarkable; your chakra reserves must be immense. I'm afraid that I am at a loss as to your name as well; are you an Academy student?"

"No," not a lie. Naruto had graduated from the Academy going on three years ago. "He has never been to the Leaf before today." If the quick conclusion was correct, this would also not be a lie. "But he is a really strong ninja anyway!" The clone that said this pumped his fist in the air. That could be taken as childish boasting, but given they had already revealed their individual life-spans, it should be little surprise.

"Yes, I'm sure he is," Sarutobi chuckled, getting into the 'clones talking about their boss as a whole other person' thing. "Though I do still need your name young man."

Naruto Uzumaki was out of the question. Mostly because, in case this was a genjutsu (they thought not however), and whoever had done it didn't know who they were dealing with (it seemed they didn't, in the small likelihood that this was a genjutsu), then it would be stupid to let them know. But if he _were_ in a genjutsu – again, unlikely – then the chances of the perpetrator not knowing him... well, anyway, he also couldn't say Naruto Uzumaki because that would raise alarms when he was born if he were right.

Of course, when he was a child he had asked the Hokage the name of his father, and the name he received was a lie. That person did not exist.

"Arashi Kazama ," He replied. It was the false name that the Third had given him for his father, and Naruto had found out very quickly that, not only was there no Kazama listed on the memorial stone, but there was not a Kazama clan in the Leaf or any Arashi Kazama who had been involved in anything to do with the Leaf.

He realized, after a moment, that he had just... _changed_ something, if this was real.

"Well, Arashi," the Hokage smiled benevolently at him. "I think we can do something for you. I'm assuming you do not have a place to stay?" He paused to pick up a pen and two scrolls and wrote in them while the clones sat quietly on the floor, wondering what on earth he was doing. He finished one, scattered sand on the ink to increase the drying speed, and wrote out the other just as quickly before they were both rolled up. "We can have another talk later, but for now it's getting late. One of you give this blue scroll to the chuunin outside my door and lead her to your creator. Bring the green one to room 207 at the Academy tomorrow; I will send someone to show you the way."

"I already know the way Old Man," clone #7 grumbled, but he pocketed the green scroll while all the rest vanished themselves. He then picked up the blue one and grinned. "Thanks Gramps. I'll talk to you later then."

It did not occur to the clone that he was being let go too easily.

As the door was closed, the Hokage reclined in his chair, puffing slowly on his pipe. He didn't even twitch as a shadow jumped down from the ceiling. "Room 207, Lord Hokage?" The ANBU snickered. "I think he's a bit beyond the genin exam at this point. Why are you bothering?"

"Now now Falcon," he turned a sly smile at the bird-faced ANBU. "I want to see how he acts around children his own age. A five year old child capable of an A-ranked kinjutsu... I'm curious. You'll look after him of course, won't you?"

The ANBU spluttered. "M-me? I though I was supposed to apprentice that Hatake kid! Now I'm taking on a team?" He sounded almost like he was pouting. "You're no fun Old Man." He paused a moment. "But seriously, that kid... we'll he's obviously really a kid, but what sort of kid comes out of training at five with those skills? And who would have sent him? Plus his eyes... they look kinda like Gamabunta's, only more slitted like a cat's..."

"Yes, I saw," the Hokage nodded. "That's why I want you to take after him. It might need a seal for control, and who better to watch over two genius children with their own special bloodlines than the Leaf's greatest genius?"

The ANBU shrugged under his black cloak in an almost embarrassed manner. "If that's what you want, Lord Hokage, I'll do my best I suppose. Still, something about that kid... it's strange. I've never heard of a Kazama clan, and the only doujutsu are the Sharingan and Byakugan. Unless you believe Jiraiya about that kid with the Rinnegan I mean."

The Hokage did not respond and instead puffed on his pipe, glancing out his window. Only time would tell the truth about Arashi Kazama.

Naruto almost fell off his tree when the first clone dispersed in the Hokage's office, informing him that, whatever was happening, the Third was involved in some way (even if it was only his image). Luckily, he was a good thirty feet up and managed to catch a branch rather than fall all the way down. True, he wouldn't have _died_ or anything, but he would still rather not have to heal up after that.

He had already seen his altered appearance in a shop window and had attempted to apply a henge to his eyes that didn't stick before putting one of his entire body. It tingled a bit as he manipulated the chakra into his special henge – the same process as his Sexy jutsu except that he wasn't trying to look like a naked woman – which took more chakra than the one he knew Konohamaru and everyone else used. It hid his eyes, but he'd made the rest of the henge him – just a year or so older.

The eyes... they were a bit freaky looking. It looked like his eyes had been rotated and he had started going Kyuubi or something and then taken some red eyeliner around his eyes. That, of course, was not the case. He hadn't _really_ looked at himself until he'd found an empty training ground, dropped his henge, and taken a look in the small pond there.

Then he had started running up a tree and almost fallen off as the popped clone told him about the Third's image. That was... unexpected. More so than being able to avoid his illusory captors. Already he was wondering if this _were_ a genjutsu.

Still, he checked his chakra control and even formed a rasengan before the bigger shocker came. His clones thought he had gone back in time. It was unbelievable unless one applied Naruto-logic to the problem, which – as it just so happened – Naruto was an expert at doing. As a matter of fact, he had been doing just that ever since before he was kicked out of the orphanage to live in the streets. He became an expert in that month before the Third finally caught up to him and set him up in an apartment.

So he had gone back in time, and whenever he used chakra the air buzzed for some reason. Fantastic.

The buzzing air around him didn't bother Naruto until he decided to try to run through the kata Jiraiya had drilled into him on the pond's surface (he would need it, especially if he was really stuck as a midget for a while). The first time he looked down – for the perverted hermit had set him up to try to read a person by the movements of their feet, even if he _was_ bad at it – he had almost fallen through the water. The red around his eyes became more prominent and there was a spidery ring of yellow intruding in the calm blue of his irises.

His own eyes freaked him out. They were worse than how Gaara's looked when Shukaku had taken him over, and he wasn't even using any Kyuubi chakra! His chakra felt too... not red. Hell, it's wasn't even _blue_ feeling, but more greenish. Well, maybe teal or aqua (spending so much time around women with Jiraiya, he had learned the names of colors that, really, could be called "green-ish blue". Not that the women agreed with him).

Luckily, his thoughts didn't have to make sense to anyone but himself, or else he might be in big trouble.

He had about two seconds beyond those thought before all but one clone dispersed and he found out that the remaining was bringing him a scroll and a chuunin who would take him to a place to stay the night before he had to go to the Academy for some reason. He also found out that the clones had given him another name.

Arashi Kazama... he didn't really care for the name, but he had to admit that Naruto sounded like it had been thought up on the spot as well. Really, who named their kid after something in ramen? Granted, it was a gift of the gods, but what reason was there for someone to name their child that? He suspected that the old man had picked the name, or perhaps the Fourth had.

He was waiting at the shore when his clone and the chuunin – a young woman with deep purple hair and golden eyes – arrived. He took the green scroll and tucked it into his hip-pouch. Unlike everyone else he knew, he didn't keep anything interesting in it yet (Kakashi had porn, the Hokage had free ramen coupons, and Iruka had sweets), but it did make finding what he needed a lot easier.

The clone dispersed.

"Alright squirt," the women tossed her hair back, "my mission is to take you to dinner and then to a hotel for the night. I want you up at seven am sharp in the morning so I can take you to breakfast and then to the Academy. After that you're on your own to ask directions; I'm only in charge of you until you're dropped off, got it?" Naruto nodded. He was used to acerbic words.

And suddenly, she softened up. "Great! Now that that's over with, I'm Kasumi Mitarashi, but you can just call me Kasumi," she ruffled his wild hair (proportionally to his head, it was nearly twice as long as it had been and Naruto couldn't wait until he had a headband or something to help keep it from his eyes). It was a full one-eighty, and Naruto – no, Niyol – was too dumbfounded to even duck.

"Um... alright, Kasumi " he blinked his large blue eyes up at her and he could almost see the women about to _squeal_ at him.

"Unofficially, you're free to talk to me whenever you like and I might unofficially pick you up after Academy tomorrow when I go in to grab my daughter," she wagged her finger knowingly. "I might also unofficially bring you a bento lunch for your first day at the Academy. Though from what the scroll said... well, you'll find out 'Rashi!"

And so she led him at a regular pace, rather than the jog – for a shinobi that is – which she had followed his clone at back to the Leaf. All the way she yammered on about various things from the cherry trees that had just come into bloom to a scouting mission she had been on last week that had been a false alarm to her husband (a special jounin) and daughter (an academy student). From her frosty manner with his clone and in informing him of her mission, he would not have expected her to be such a motherly person.

"You're such a dear, Arashi," she sighed. "My daughter could learn a lesson in manners from you. Then again, she _is_ only seven, but you have to figure... well, anyway, what do you want for dinner? It's the Hokage's treat for us both tonight. Kiyoshi," her husband, "was going to get take-out tonight anyway, so it's not like I'm missing anything. He'll probably get a bunch of dango for him and Anko anyway."

Anko... as in Anko Mitarashi? Not that Naru- Arashi would have said it aloud, but he couldn't help but disbelieve that that complete and utter whack-a-doo had a mother like _this_, even if she did have Orochimaru as her sensei. Naruto would have given his right lung for a mother at all, but that was in the past (future, whatever).

"'Rashi? Hello?" He jumped at finding a hand waving in his face. "You kinda spaced out there. Your pupils dilated; it was kinda weird to watch. So, dinner kiddo?"

"Wha- oh, right," he scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. Kasumi almost squealed again, but managed to refrain it seemed. "Um... could we go out for ramen? Please?"

He realized suddenly that seeming like a little kid with far too large of clothing was very helpful as suddenly he found himself engulfed in a hug and Kasumi was promising that she would take him to the best ramen shop and he could have as much ramen as he could eat.

All in all, he didn't much mind being short. For now.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Arashi was up and out of bed at the hotel within a minute of waking up rather than lounging as he usually did. He had no troubles recalling exactly what had happened yesterday, nor the conclusions he – or, rather, his clones – had come up with regarding the current situation. The night before he had had a pleasant dinner with Kasumi – he still couldn't get over that _that_ had raised the crazy snake-bitch who had been in charge of the second phase of his first chuunin exam – which involved him stuffing himself with Ichiraku ramen. It was nice to meet the old man's wife, though he did miss seeing Ayame, who had not yet been born.

The amount of ramen he had ingested was the reason he was up so quickly.

Lucky that, considering as soon as he had bathed in the hotel shower (he needed it) and was sufficiently awake to do anything more than shuffle about and grumble, Kasumi had let herself into the room. It was just three minutes to seven, the time she was set to meet him.

"'Rashi, come on out!" He poked his still wet head from the bedroom (it was a nice hotel and had a living room, kitchenette, bathroom, and bedroom; it was also only a bit smaller than his own apartment). Kasumi was standing in the middle of the living area, grinning broadly at him. At her side, clutching the bottom of Kasumi's chuunin vest unconsciously, was a girl of seven or so year old with darker purple hair – nearly black really – and light brown eyes.

Unmistakably Anko Mitarashi, who looked rather shy now that Naruto was only just barely younger than her. Though that might have been more to do with Arashi's strange eyes than actual shyness.

"Hey, I brought you a spare set of clothes from Lord Hokage," Kasumi said, holding up a bundle. "It was going to be just me picking you up, but Kiyoshi had a mission to get to, so my daughter is joining us.'Rashi, this is Anko. Anko, this is Arashi Kazama; he's going to the Academy today and ate at least a third of his own weight in ramen last night." She paused, noticing that she was still holding the new clothes. "Well, go on; go get changed! We still have to go get breakfast and get to the Academy in an hour. You don't want to be late on your first day, do you?"

Arashi shook his head swiftly and apologized before taking the bundle and disappearing back to the bedroom. He really did need something else after all; his pants were pretty much ragged balloon pants and the neck of his t-shirt almost fell off of his thin shoulders. Still, there went the last of his orange, as he found that his new outfit was black and blue. He would have rather had orange, but at least the shinobi-style sandals had an orange stripe.

Yes, definitely a good thing Kasumi had brought him clothes; going to school barefoot, much as he didn't want to go to school at all, would have been rather stupid. It hadn't mattered when he was walking in the woods and roof jumping, or even in the Hokage's office, but...

Well, even at fifteen-going-on-six years old, Naruto didn't like getting picked on. He'd had more than his fair share of that.

While changing, he did notice something off with his stomach though; despite the fact that he wasn't channeling any chakra at the moment, he could still see the seal spread across his abdomen. That shouldn't have been possible, yet it was shining bright as day; no training with his shirt of then, unless he wanted to answer any unsavory questions. Still, his new shirt covered in easily.

Taking an extra moment to finger the royal-blue leaf-symbol on the black t-shirt he sighed and left the room. It wasn't that he disliked blue, but it was the same shade as Sasuke's old shirts from when he had still been 'the Uchiha' rather than 'the traitor'. Kasumi found it adorable and brought attention to his eyes. Not exactly his goal, considering his eyes were freaky.

Breakfast, much like dinner the night before, was full of inane chatter about just about everything. As soon as Anko realized that his eyes didn't seem to do anything creepy (like looking through her clothes as the Byakugan would), she turned out to be a very chipper child with a liking for poking Arashi with chopsticks. It was annoying, but he remembered she had been eating dango at the exam. Maybe she just liked poking things with sticks.

When they were done with breakfast, she took great joy in throwing those same chopsticks at the ceiling, where they bounced off. Kasumi's stuck, though there were so many chopsticks in the ceiling from various shinobi patrons that is would be impossible to pinpoint it once Arashi had looked away. It was a theme of the restaurant that the shinobi patrons would try to create a picture on the ceiling by the new year's festival when they would replace the ceiling; so far it was looking like a battle between stick figure people using... something.

Having not had much experience with senbon, Arashi tried throwing the first one like a kunai and it bounced off the ceiling harmlessly. He glared a moment before adjusting his grip and adding just a touch of wind chakra to the thin piece of wood to make the end sharp before throwing that one as well. It stuck out at an angle, but it stuck either way.

"Mom, did you see his eyes? They started turning yellow like yours!" She seemed highly excited by this, then she stopped, looked up, and her eyes widened. "Are you really just starting at the Academy? I don't know anyone at school who can do that, not even the Uchiha boy in my class."

Arashi shifted uncomfortably in his seat. His eyes turned yellow? He noticed that when he was on the water, even though they had been all blue that morning in the bathroom. Now when he had done the cheater way of getting his chopstick to stick they had gotten a bit yellow... it was disconcerting.

"'Rashi is very advanced for his age," Kasumi whispered as she poked about in her pouch for her "on the Hokage" slip that was to be giving for Arashi's meals with her. "When I dropped by the Tower this morning, I heard he can do a jutsu that isn't taught in the Academy. That's why the Hokage is sending him today, when he's only five." Anko, of course, was in awe, but then moved on to disbelief.

Arashi was highly tempted to remind Kasumi that, just because he seemed five, it didn't mean he wouldn't notice her talking about him _right in front of him_. And to remind Anko that he may seem five, but he shouldn't be underestimated... except that he knew his taijutsu was worse even now than it had been when he was an academy student, if only because he was unused to the proportions. Walking had been easy enough to figure out, but his taijutsu was going to suffer for a while.

So it was probably a good thing that he was following Kasumi and Anko to Academy, even if it was through the crowded streets (Anko, as a first year student, was not yet good enough at jumping to safely traverse the roofs).

Waving good-bye to Kasumi at the gate, Arashi had to run to room 207, lest he be late. Of course, regular running would not do; instead he ran up the wall and vaulted through the window there a mere instant after the bell had rung. Of course, he was familiar with room 207's location, it having been his class room his second year, and so he had no trouble with arriving in the wrong room.

Though the room full of older kids – all ten, or thereabouts – who looked at him strangely. But Arashi just straightened himself out, glad again for the new clothes and shoes, before walking up to the front of the room and handing the chuunin instructor the scroll he had been assigned to. They all looked at him strangely, but did little more than whisper. Well, let them, though why the Hokage had immediately stuck him with an older class was beyond Arashi's reasoning.

"Well," the chuunin said as he looked up from the scroll, "it seems we have another younger student joining us today. Arashi, go find yourself a seat while we get started. Perhaps next to Kakashi."

Now _that_ was a bit of a surprise, but Arashi made his way to where he silver-haired sensei was sitting in the front of the room... and he looked the same age as Arashi did. It was... strange, but he tried not to stare at the little boy with nearly-white skin, pale silver hair that stuck up, and the distinctive face mask covering his lower face.

Not for the first time, Arashi wondered where Kakashi Hatake had come across his Sharingan since he didn't seem to have it yet. Maybe in the field?

Still, he sat down next to his fellow midget and swung his legs in the seat was the designed for someone a good six inches to a foot taller than he.

"You're late," Kakashi glared at him. "Shinobi can't be late; it's against the rules." Arashi stared for half a beat, disbelieving, before he stuck out his tongue. Like _he_ was one to talk! And he wouldn't have been late if Anko hadn't insisted they stop for dango on the way (Kasumi was such a push-over...).

"Yeah, well, you're chakra's white!" Arashi snapped in retort. It was the first thing that came to mind, yet Kakashi looked at him with surprise. Hell, Arashi was surprised. He had never thought of chakra color beyond that his felt blue – now more green-blue – Kyuubi's was red, and Shukaku had gold chakra. But there was no denying now that he said it that this was the truth.

_How did I know that?_ He wondered, though he didn't say it aloud and instead turned his attention to the front of the room instead of letting himself ponder the boy at his side. Now was not the time to think about the future, because the teacher was talking to the class, and he really wanted to hear this, so he would know why it was this particular class he had been entered to. Ten year olds were the mid-level students, neither beginners nor ready to graduate.

Or so he thought.

"This will be your last day of formal shinobi education – for those of you who pass, that is," the chuunin cast a look in Arashi and Kakashi's direction before he continued. "This test will determine your future; whether you become genin or if you are in need of future training, or even if you are better suited for a civilian life." Then he looked at another corner of the room where a boy with black hair slumped in his seat.

"Line up in alphabetical order by your clan name descending down the center stairs," everyone rushed to line up. Arashi was near the front, third in line since his made-up surname began with "ka", while he noticed Kakashi was significantly further back. "Aozawa Hikari" was called up first.

The test was significantly more than what his graduating class had been tested on. They had to perform all three of the academy jutsu, which required next to no chakra control for anyone without jinchuriki-sized reserves, and then they had to walk up the walls, then back down, and hit a target with a kunai. It was a lot more than _just a _clone.

"Arashi Kazama," he stepped forward and performed a simple replacement with the log provided, then a Shadow Clone – not that it was visibly different from normal, so the chuunin didn't notice he did anything different in the first place – before one of his special henge to look like a teenaged girl (clothed, for once, considering he seemed to be a kid). The other two tests were just as easy and the chuunin reluctantly told him to pick up a headband on the way out.

He quite noticeably avoided Arashi's eyes. Not that the teen-turned-chibi was going to blame him; they were some damn creepy eyes to see on anyone, let alone a little kid.

Arashi was annoyed by his headband though. They weren't made for children because they had to fit the adult shinobi. The headbands were not reissued later in life, so Arashi now had a headband that was far too wide for his head. He didn't even try bending it and just tied it around his neck until he could think of something else to do with it.

About two-thirds of the class entered the room with a forehead protector, including Kakashi. He didn't seem too pleased that "late-boy" had passed as well, but ended up ignoring Arashi all together. That suited the blond just fine as he wasn't sure how any actual conversation with his sensei might go.

Well, at least he wouldn't have to sit through history lessons, though Arashi could still do with the taijutsu so that he could get used to his body. Already he had almost screwed up on walking up the wall because he had forgotten he had to get closer than he usually did due to the shorter legs.

After a week of milling around town, trying to get more used to his new size (he had gotten beyond the point of trying to strike too high when sparring against a clone, at least), and spending time with Kasumi and Anko, the graduates were called back to the Academy – on a Saturday no less! – for team assignments. Arashi took the same seat as he had for exams, much as he hated it (front and center sucked, but all the older kids were there before him), and was unsurprised that Kakashi was there before him.

He was no longer surprised at the boy's glare either; he was so used to being glared at that it failed to faze him.

The chuunin instructor from before explained much the same things as Iruka had, so Arashi only half paid attention and waited for the team assignments. However, when all the teams were decided, Arashi couldn't help but be confused. He had graduated – the headband slung about his neck was proof of that – but neither he nor Kakashi had been assigned to a team.

Then, he quickly realized, _they_ were going to be a team and he couldn't decide whether he should be excited – it was Kakashi after all! – or annoyed – because Kakashi seemed to be a rule maniac as a kid. The older kids seemed to have noticed as well.

"Arashi, Kakashi, you have both been selected as apprentices," the teacher addressed them both. "Your sensei will arrive when the rest of the teams have vacated. For now, everyone, you have an hour and a half for lunch before your sensei will being arriving. Make sure you're back in time."

Arashi left the room out the window, just as he had arrived, and met Kasumi and Anko outside. Kasumi was standing on the chain-link fence and helping Anko to balance up there as well. She was doing quite well for only being seven; Naruto wasn't quite used to his body enough to stand on it without using chakra.

"So, did they say who you're going to apprentice under, 'Rashi?" Kasumi asked. Arashi was highly tempted to blow a gasket – she _knew_ he wasn't going to be on a regular genin team – but instead shook his head.

"No; none of the sensei are going to arrive until lunch is over," he jumped on the fence beside Anko and attached using chakra. In the past week, he had learned why his eyes turned yellow sometimes. Well, not why, but he did know what caused it; molding chakra. He was a bit worried about it being Kyuubi manifesting in him, but he couldn't really say anything about it. Whatever it was, it was caused by the humming air that he felt when he molded chakra.

Yet another thing about his midget form that Arashi hated.

"Oh, well you'll love him," Kasumi chuckled before leaping off the fence's other side and taking Anko down with her. "He's an absolute doll! Actually, not that I think of it, he looks like you 'Rashi, except for your scars and your eyes of course. Maybe he's your cousin or something." She giggled, though when asked she refused to divulge the name of this mystery sensei.

Arashi enjoyed a pleasant home-cooked meal courtesy of Kasumi before being sent back to the Academy. Once again, he was almost late. As with the past few times, he could blame that on Anko and her incessant need for dango; he also blamed the girl's father who made Arashi go with them to get dango instead of letting him get to school.

Not that Arashi much cared about being on time; he wasn't due to be born for a while yet, though he wasn't sure how long. Still, he had just sat back in his seat when the teacher entered the room with a group of jounin, including a man who Arashi vaguely recognized as being an Aburame; perhaps Shino's father?

As each sensei took charge of their trio of students, the room slowly emptied until finally the only non-student remaining was only a yellow-haired teenager talking to the chuunin sensei in the corner. Arashi noticed that the teen had perhaps spikier hair than _he_ did, which was certainly saying something. Still, that conversation came to an end and the teenager, who was maybe a year older than Naruto had been, walked over to Arashi and Kakashi.

"You're Kakashi Hatake and Arashi Kazama, right?" He looked at them each in turn with startlingly blue eyes that quite obviously avoided Arashi's. Not an uncommon reaction for the past week. He looked familiar, almost like... but no. There was _no way_ that this kid was the Fourth. True, Arashi had only seen him in Kakashi's team photo (Kakashi had been at least ten in that), and on the monument, but somehow he couldn't imagine the man with a pink t-shirt declaring him "King of Kittens".

It had to be another spiky-haired blond. It just _had_ to be.

Of course, the Fourth had always been his idol, ever since he was learning about the great deeds of all the Hokage he had wanted to be like the Fourth. Finding out that his jounin sensei was the Fourth's student had been exciting, and Jiraiya had actually _taught_ the man, which was even better. It had Naruto feel close to the being who sealed the Kyuubi in him.

Now though...

"Did our sensei send you?" Kakashi asked attentively, coal-black eyes taking in the pink shirt with more disdain than any child ought to hold. Even Arashi, who just had his dreams shattered and was fully old enough to be disdainful of _anything_ thought it was a bit overboard.

"You're both to meet on the roof," he didn't respond to Kakashi's question, however, and merely shunshined out. Arashi _really_ needed to learn how to do that at some point; even Sasuke could do it back in their first chuunin exam.

Still, that reply was all Arashi needed and he walked to the window, planted his feet on the wall, and walked up to the roof. It really didn't matter; he wasn't doing it to show off or anything. This way was just a lot faster than going to the stairs and climbing them for two floors (also, he kept trying to take steps two at a time and forgetting how short his legs were).

"A bit of a waste of your energy, isn't it Arashi-kun?" The Fourth grinned at Arashi as he calmly walked on the bars and vaulted properly over the fence. It took a moment to reevaluate his relationship with gravity. "There are stairs coming up, you know."

"I have a lot of chakra, and this way was faster," he shrugged. The Fourth– teenager that he was – didn't seem surprised at the comment about having a lot of chakra and merely nodded. Well, why should he be surprised? First off, he was _the_ Fourth Hokage. Or he would be. And second, the Hokage would have told the man chosen as his instructor about everything he knew.

That, of course, led to Arashi realizing why the Fourth had been selected as his teacher; after all, he was lauded as the greatest genius ever within the Leaf! And the first thing Arashi had done upon entering the Leaf was to show off by producing an A-ranked jutsu that no one tossed about as casually as he always did. And Kakashi was a genius too, wasn't he?

_Or maybe the old man just doesn't trust some little kid wandering into town with shinobi training to be looked after by anyone but the best_, he thought. That made more sense.

"Okay you two," Arashi almost jumped when he realized that the Fourth had directed him to sit on the steps and that Kakashi had arrived. The pink-clad teen himself was leaning nonchalantly against the railing just where Arashi had climbed up. "We're going to do some introductions; get to know each other, right? So things like your likes and dislikes, dreams for the future, whatever strikes your fancy."

Arashi waited, and realized that he was expected to go first. "Um... sensei, why don't you go first? Show us how it's done?" Not that he had anything against going first, but... well, he just didn't want to.

"Hn? Oh! Right," the embarrassed gesture of squinting his eyes and ruffling the back of his hair was highly familiar to Arashi. Scarily so, really. "My name is Minato Namikaze, and I'm seventeen. I was promoted to jounin about a year ago, so you guys are my first genin team... except we're not quite the same as a team, but I'll explain that later. I like animals a lot, particularly foxes and toads, and making up new jutsu. I dislike that my old genin team leader is always trying to involve me on his perverted escapades," Arashi was glad to hear he wasn't the only one, "and I _really_ dislike this one kunoichi... eh, but you don't need to hear about that. My hobbies are making up new jutsu, helping out around the Academy, and playing cards in the red-light district. And my dream for the future is to wear the Hokage hat! Doesn't matter if it's legitimately or not; I just think it looks cool. You next, Blondie."

The grin was oddly familiar as well, yet Arashi did not allow himself to dwell on what that might mean. It was also really stupid to call Arashi "Blondie" when not only did the Fourth – Minato – know Arashi's name, but he was just as blond if not more so.

"I'm Arashi Kazama, five years old," he almost said fifteen. He'd not actually had to tell anyone his age so far, unlike his name. "I've had a lot of training up until I came to the Leaf, and I know some cool jutsu, but I'm not so great with taijutsu yet, or genjutsu. I also have really high stamina. I like ramen, and Kasumi, and training. I like making up new jutsu too, but I've only made up a few... I dislike stuck-up bastards," he half expected to be chided for his language, but forged on, "and the three minutes you have to wait for instant ramen to cook. I hate my eyes. My hobbies are training, pranks, making up jutsu, and I've been learning how to cook something more complex than field rations lately. And my dream..."

Did he have a dream anymore? He couldn't be Hokage if he barely even existed, could he? Especially considering the man before him was going to be the next Hokage (even if, for now, he only wanted that stupid hat). It just wasn't to be.

"My dream is to make a better future," he finally said after half a moment's pause. There, that was ambiguous, and if he could pull it off, maybe accurate too.

"Considering you're a genin at five, 'Rashi, that's pretty impressive of you to have made _any_ orignal techniques," Minato grinned, unconsciously using the nickname that Arashi had been getting used to from Kasumi and Anko for the past week. "I'll train you in taijutsu, no problem. As for your eyes..." it was especially noticeable that he wasn't looking Arashi in the eyes just then. "Well, they're certainly unique. They're a better way to distinguish yourself than if you wore all orange or something."

Now _that_ rubbed Arashi wrong. He liked orange!

"Says the man wearing a hot pink t-shirt," Arashi deadpanned in retort. The blush on Minato's face made the teen-child grin. Score one for team chibi!

"It's not my fault; I lost a bet," Minato grumbled. "Just for that, when this is over you're going to run three laps around the village." Arashi wasn't fazed; he could run for a long time, just like any shinobi. "On the walls." Again, Arashi was unfazed. He had a lot of chakra to burn; if anything that would be _faster_ that normal. "While wearing an orange jumpsuit."

Arashi just grinned at his sensei, exposing slightly longer than average canines. He would have orange in his wardrobe again!

It seemed, however, that Kakashi had had enough. "I am Kakashi Hatake of the Hatake clan; I am five years old," his tone was highly militaristic for his age, especially compared to the bickering blonds. "My likes are not important; I dislike those who disobey the rules. My hobby is training. My dream for the future is to rid the Hatake clan of its shame and to die in the service of my village."

It was a highly morbid and minimalist life for a five-year-old child, that much was for certain.

It seemed that Minato shared that view, though he said nothing about it.

"Right, 'Rashi, 'Kashi," oh no, they were a _pair_ now! "Here's how this is going to work; our 'team' is, obviously, going to be a bit unconventional. For the most part, we will be training rather than taking missions. In fact, we won't take any missions but one D-rank per day until I think you're both ready, and you aren't allowed to complain. I'll focus on making your weak-points stronger while honing your stronger bits into impenetrable defenses and insane offenses. You were both allowed to advance because it was obvious you are above Academy level. 'Kashi, your basic skills are highly refined, and your knowledge of the rules rivals those of your tutors. 'Rashi, the jutsu you demonstrated a week ago is an A-rank kinjutsu, obviously above the regular skill level," now _that_ got Kakashi's attention. "But neither of you are ready for the field.

"If I gave you the test my sensei gave me when I graduated, at this moment you would both fail, simply because you have trained for when you will have bigger bodies," it was true, but how should he know that? "There are no methods for child soldiers because child soldiers grow up; it's considered pointless to train them in something they'll grow out of before they hit the field. However, at the rate you two have progressed, you'll be taking on C-rank missions before the year is out." Considering it was the middle of March, that seemed a fair estimate for _any_ rookie. "Meaning you will both be in combat situations for years before you will be large enough to use the methods taught to you. Lord Hokage assigned me to fix that."

Seeing the serious face on the Hokage-to-be, Arashi could believe Minato was just that, pink t-shirt or no pink t-shirt. The look was similar to the one that would grace the Hokage Monument one day. How far away, he couldn't be certain, but it couldn't be too long.

"Meet me tomorrow at sun-up in training area number 27," Minato stated finally. "Have a good breakfast and pack a bento; you're going to need the energy." He paused and grinned. "Oh, and 'Rashi? Stay behind a moment, would you?" Kakashi caught the hint and left like a good little child soldier. "The old man says you're to come live with me starting tonight, okay kid? No one your age should be living alone, nice as Mrs. Mitasrashi must be considering she's been taking care of you. Also, I'm to take you shopping today so you have more than just that one set of clothes. And it seems an orange jumpsuit is on the shopping list so you can undergo your punishment for back-sassing me."

Arashi went from being stunned to overjoyed to a bit smug all in the space of twenty seconds.

"Mom, why is there an orange blob on that wall?" Anko tugged on her mother's sleeve and pointed at the large wall surrounding the Leaf proper. And, indeed, there was an orange something on the wall, moving quickly enough that it was almost a blur.

Kasumi followed her daughter's gaze and blinked. "I think that's 'Rashi," she stated after a moment of observation. "Poor kid; he must have made fun of Minato's shirt. Why else would he be wearing bright orange in public?" It completely skipped her mind that the impromptu pants that boy had been wearing when they met were orange.

Up on the wall, Arashi was running without too much of a care, evening whistling as he finished his third and final lap over where Minato's apartment – the one that he, too, would be living in for the next few years (or until he finally made chuunin) – and landed softly on the roof of the nice complex where his equally brightly-clad sensei awaited him with surprise.

"You weren't kidding about having high stamina, were you?" Minato whistled, obviously impressed. "You aren't even winded! Right, let's get down to the apartment. I picked up some salt ramen since you said you liked it, but after tonight you're eating healthy food, got it? You'll never be tall like me if all you eat are noodles after all." Even though Minato was barely above average height, he still towered over the bite-sized jinchuriki. Just to prove that this made him superior, he picked up the protesting time-traveler, slung the child over his shoulder, and hopped onto the small outside porch.

Arashi wondered, in the back of his mind, if this was what it was like to have a big brother.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry that i took me so long. I've been pretty busy. Anyway, her'es the next two chapters. And if anyone wants to send me an idea for team 7 family stories. Please, that would be amazing. Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

Chapter 3

The first morning of living with Minato turned out to be hell for Arashi. He had gone to sleep in the pajamas that the Hokage had ordered Minato to buy for him (it would come out of his pay when they started taking missions, as would twenty percent for rent and food) and woke half an hour before sunrise. He left "his" bedroom and was horrified.

His new orange jumpsuit, the one that had been bought for him as "punishment", had been dyed a more shinobi-friendly color. He fell to his knees and was tempted to start crying over the now-black jumpsuit. His precious orange...

Even worse, he had to have miso and fish for breakfast. He had nothing against those foods in particular; they were common breakfast fare to anyone from the more traditional families, but it wasn't ramen. He hadn't entirely expected Minato to go through on his threat, yet he had, and Arashi found himself eating a _healthy_ breakfast that didn't fill him up nearly enough. He glared hatefully at the man.

"You are a very cruel person, Minato-sensei," he grumbled as he poked the fish with his chopstick. Was this thing even edible? He wasn't entirely sure he trusted any man to cook for him but Teuchi at the Ichiraku stand, especially one who had dyedhis much-loved and brand-new orange jumpsuit _black_. Arashi hated black... well, that was a bit harsh, but it was far from being his favorite color; hell, according to Jiraiya it wasn't a real color anyway!

Thinking of Jiraiya only made him sad until he realized that Jiraiya hadn't even met him yet and was, in fact, alive. That was a much happier thought. Even more that he was to be taught by _the_ Fourth Hokage and was living with that same person.

Yet, given the suspicious looking fish on his plate and the black jumpsuit pants he was wearing – the jacket was still drying out – Arashi couldn't help but to be a bit disenchanted with the guy. It didn't matter if Minato was the Fourth-to-be, or if he was essentially Arashi's guardian – hell, it wouldn't have mattered to the boy if Minato was his _father_ – Arashi simply did not like him.

For the moment. He was bound to get over it when Minato started teaching him.

Upon leaving the apartment, Minato seemed content to run very quickly. Well, not very quickly for a shinobi, but considering Arashi was following him (he supposedly would not know which training ground to head to), it seemed quite fast. He pumped quite a bit of chakra into his legs to keep up with his sensei, and when they arrived at the assigned meeting point, Arashi was pumping with adrenaline and his legs ached. More so, the air had progressed from "buzzing" to "humming".

No, wait, that was Minato, who was humming a popular song. Or Arashi assumed it was popular; it was certainly a catchy enough tune.

"'Kashi! You showed up on time!" Minato crowed happily. "Fantastic. And I see you beat the trap I set for early-birds too. Good for you." And, indeed, there were several blunt kunai on the ground and Arashi could see the telltale glint of wire in the grass. "That's lesson number one; don't be late, but don't be early. It's harder to be caught if you are right on time. And while it's good to be able to set up traps, you never know who might have set traps for _you_."

It was actually pretty sound advice, though Arashi already knew it. The best way to avoid an ambush may be to arrive before expected, but when given a specific arrival time, it was best to arrive on time and not give anyone the opportunity to attack while waiting. But Arashi pretended to not pay any attention to his latest sensei; he was good at that.

"'Rashi, are you listening to me?" Minato rested his hand on top of Arashi's head, a deadpan look on his face. Arashi debated for a moment before replying.

"Yes, Minato-sensei," he replied dutifully, just like the good little genius he was pretending to be. "The early-bird catches the worm, but the night-owl catches the early bird, right?" That was how Jiraiya had taught it at least.

Minato looked slightly miffed, but he only ruffled Arashi's already messy hair and nodded. "Yeah," he rolled his eyes. "You sound just like Jiraiya-sensei, brat." Arashi might have protested being called a brat if he hadn't been called far worse all his life. Anything was better than "demon" or "monster". Even if he was three times as old as he looked.

Arashi just grinned smugly at his sensei/guardian/landlord.

Maybe being taught by the man who had sealed his tormentor was going to be more fun than he originally thought.

Of course, by lunch time, Arashi was wishing for death, but that was beside the point. Minato wanted to know just what his students were capable of, and Arashi soon found out just how much of a genius his original jounin sensei really was. Within the first minute of their taijutsu-only spar he discovered that Arashi was tracking him by his feet, and Kakashi used that to his advantage. Really, Arashi only won because of his ungodly stamina; every time he was knocked down he got back up and charged in without missing a beat. Kakashi may have been a prodigy, but he didn't have the sheer energy that Arashi had always possessed.

After that Minato had them demonstrate their skills with ninjutsu. Arashi wasn't terribly proud to say he out-streaked Kakashi in that area since Kakashi was one-third his real age and had far less training than he did. Also, Minato clearly looked away when Arashi gathered his chakra and started doing what he knew – except Rasengan and variations thereof; he wasn't _that_ stupid – though he did toss in a yuri jutsu as a tribute to his own student-and-rival, Konohamaru.

It was a good way to introduce Arashi's pranking skills, he later decided, even if he did have to clean the blood off the grass later. And he had to pay for Minato's dry-cleaning bill. He also had to tell the dry-cleaner that his sensei had a sparring accident, rather than that he was a closet pervert.

He told them the latter anyway, when he picked up the clothes again the next day. Minato was preoccupied anyway.

After a nice bento lunch – Arashi had to make his own that morning (Minato, it seemed, knew _nothing_ of child rearing) – the tallest of the spiky-haired trio led the shorter two off to the Hokage tower for their first official D-rank mission. They had to go to a small farm out of town and weed-out their corn-field so that planting could begin for the year. The mission was slated to last the rest of the week in three-hour spans each day.

It took Arashi one-hour after he summoned up his clones to get the job done, and he knew that seeing physical clones surprised his fellow apprentice (due to the yuri incident, Arashi never had to prove his clones were anything but the regular illusory variety). Minato, while surprised by the sheer quantity of shadow clones, was not surprised that Arashi used them, as was expected. The old man wouldn't leave a student's sensei in the dark about something like that.

_Though, to be fair, the student shouldn't keep tings secret from the sensei either,_ Arashi winced internally as they walked back to the Leaf. So far Kyuubi had done absolutely nothing. Hadn't tried to tempt him, hadn't seeped any tainted chakra into his coils... nothing. That was the most disturbing thing he could think of really, Kyuubi not even trying.

Admittedly, there had been no incident to cause the Kyuubi to be able to do anything, but it unnerved the young genin all the same.

Back in the Hokage tower, the chuunin on desk duty didn't believe them when they said they were done. "Two brats that young can't possibly have finished in anything less than a week," the man snorted, tilting his chair back. "Honestly Minato, I always knew you had a superiority complex, but having your subordinates skip out on an assignment to look good? That really takes the cake." Minato didn't seem at all disturbed by this. "That job was estimated for a regular genin team, not a couple of kids who aren't even old enough to enter the Academy to begin with."

"We are not lying!" Arashi snapped angrily, glaring at the man. Everyone always thought he was lying because of Kyuubi, and now because of his age. "It took up twenty minutes to get there, an hour to do the work, and half an hour to get back." Well, ten minutes of that later half-hour was because the farmer's wife tried to give Kakashi and Arashi sweets. Arashi accepted (sweets were tasty), but Kakashi refused.

"And I'm telling you that's – oh, hello Lord Hokage! What are you doing at the missions desk at this time of day?" The chuunin immediately had his chair back properly on the floor and Arashi turned to see that, indeed, Hiruzen Sarutobi was present with two little boys at his side. The elder of the two had been in Arashi and Kakashi's graduating class while the younger looked to be about five or six years old.

"I heard that our youngest shinobi had returned from their mission, and Asuma wanted to meet them," the old man chuckled, ruffling the younger boy's hair. The kid swatted that hand away, while Arashi marveled that that little kid was Asuma Sarutobi; such a small world this was! "Well, go on son. They aren't going to bite."

No one had ever encouraged their child to go within a mile of Arashi before (except Kasumi, but he really couldn't count Anko as a child even when she so clearly was one). It was a truly novel experience.

"Um... hi, I'm Asuma," the child stated nervously as he stepped forward a little bit. Unlike everyone else, he didn't avoid Arashi's gaze, but rather looked at him intently, studying the slitted blue eyes. "Your eyes... do they do anything?"

No one had actually asked Arashi about his eyes, as he was rather self conscious of them for the week he had had them. "Well, I don't think so," he responded. He saw just the same as he had before, except that squinting didn't stop his eyes from getting too much light in them (particularly annoying in the morning), and he hadn't noticed them doing anything other than start turning yellow when he used chakra.

"Oh," Asuma tilted his head, "'cause the Uchiha boy in my class said that his family all his weird eyes too, but he doesn't have his yet, and they do cool stuff! And the Hyuuga girl has funny eyes that can see through stuff. I don't know anyone else with weird eyes though."

Of course a child would mention the families who want to have weird things going on with their eyes, but Arashi didn't have a doujutsu. He didn't mind being strange or distinctive, but all he could think of when he saw the horizontal slits was Kyuubi, and that was not a good thing to think of. Still, he kept up the smiling mask that he used all throughout his Academy days.

"Do your mom and dad have eyes like yours?" Asuma persisted. Any shyness he had about meeting a young shinobi were lost already, and he seemed to have forgotten that Kakashi was present at all... probably a good idea. Kakashi might scare him.

"I doubt it," Arashi shrugged. He quickly turned his attention to the Hokage before Asuma could ask something about his parents. Not that Arashi would be hurt by saying they were dead – it was a reality he had lived his entire life with – but more fear of being incorrect about that. After all, the Fourth still lived, that meant they did too since both his parents died on his birthday. "Hey Old Man, the guy behind the desk doesn't believe that we finished our mission. We've been here for at least ten minutes and he won't let us fill out the completion report."

"Show some respect to your Hokage, kid! I already told you, you don't get paid if you don't do the whole mission. One hour of work by two kids isn't going to get an entire field weeded," the chuunin sounded exasperated. "Sir, talk some sense into the brats! Minato hasn't stepped in yet to take them down a peg yet. I swear, give a couple of kids a headband and they think they're tokubetsu jounin!"

Arashi sent a glare to the chuunin from the corner of his eyes but paid attention to the Hokage. He did notice Asuma glared at the chuunin as well, though why was beyond the inadvertent time traveler.

"Minato?" Asuma's father sounded more bemused than anything.

"Sorry Old Man, it's my fault entirely," Minato ducked his head and scratched the back as if embarrassed, though it was obviously an act. "It's just that it's against my better nature to teach children to lie to their superiors. If I had realized this would happen I would have told them to work at a more sedate pace, get it done in a week rather than an hour, but... well, here we are."

The chuunin could only gawk while the Hokage smiled. "Of course, Minato, no harm done," he chuckled lowly. "Now, Kurogawa, would you mind giving these boys their report scroll? Oh, and Minato? I want to talk to you after you're finished in here." With that the Hokage left the room, beckoning his sons to follow in his wake.

Arashi grinned deviously at the chuunin and summoned up a shadow clone to do the work while he started his laps, his punishment for using Konohamaru's yuri technique against his sensei.

Some things were so completely worth it.

Minato entered the Hokage's office with a cautious step. The aging man had already sent his sons home to their mother, and Minato had sent Kakashi along as well. Arashi was out running laps on the wall, or he would be until Mitarashi Kasumi came to pick him up after her shift ended. Apparently she wanted to congratulate him for his first mission or something.

"Old Man," Minato bowed at the waist to the man who was, quite simply, like a father to him. But it was more entertaining to poke fun at the man's age, and he referred to the village leader accordingly. "What did you want to see me about?"

"Mostly about Arashi, but I would like to hear about Kakashi and your mission today as well," the Hokage smiled lightly. "You look a bit paler than normal; is there any reason to that?"

The youngest active jounin in the Leaf would have blushed if he had lost the extra blood required for that to Arashi's perverted jutsu. Not that he was going to mention that to the Hokage.

"'Rashi seems a lot better adjusted than you would think for such a young kid," Minato shrugged. "He can be serious, I noticed this especially when I had him sparring with 'Kashi, and he's terribly stubborn. Every time he gets knocked down he gets right up again. One time I was sure that he'd broken the skin on his lip by biting it, but when he got back up there was no sign of any wound except for a dab of blood that he licked off as if it were nothing. There wasn't any scarring or anything either."

"So we may assume that he has an unnatural healing rate," the Hokage nodded. "There are several clans in the hidden countries that possess such bloodlines, though none in the Land of Fire that I am aware of. Continue."

"He also possesses a bit of a pranking streak and even created a rather... _unique_ application of henge and shadow clones that would put Jiraiya-sensei into a coma, or any other pervert for that matter," Minato was careful to not look at his leader with that statement. He was _not_ a pervert, he was simply a healthy teenaged boy. "He also seems to actually _like_ the color orange, though why I don't know. He was glaring daggers at me when I dyed his new orange jumpsuit black, and yesterday he tried to convince me to that an orange replacement strap for his head band was vital to his survival. He's a lot more like a regular kid than you would expect.

"Compared to 'Kashi, 'Rashi is a regular kid. Kakashi seems to have it drilled into his head that the rules are everything. Not that I blame him, after everything that has happened to his father in the past few months I can imagine he thinks that being a perfect soldier will get rid of their shame, but it's definitely unhealthy. When we were leaving the farm, he refused to take any candies from the farmer's wife, even when Arashi accepted. He said it was juvenile, and that as a shinobi he was now a man shouldn't indulge in things like that."

"I expected as much," the Hokage leaned back and sighed. "Is there any new information about Arashi's eyes or where he is from?"

"Not really, though he said quite plainly that he 'hates' his eyes," Minato shrugged. "It's probably something he was picked on for back in his own village or something, or maybe he just doesn't like the attention they draw. And you heard what he said in the mission room about "doubting" that his parents have the same eyes. I'm guessing he's either an orphan or abandoned. If it's the latter, his parents could be from the Land of Water, in which case he could even be the start of a bloodline."

Both remained silent for a moment before the Hokage sighed and lit his pipe. As was his habit, he stood and turned to look over the city as he ruminated.

"We shall just have to wait and see what else may be discovered about the boy," he stated after a minute. "It's obvious that he is something entirely new to the Leaf. You should continue your guardian role as best you can until we can decide what to do about him."

"Yeah, but..." Minato grimaced. "I have no idea what to do with a kid, you know that. I got him clothes and set him up in a room and he's ecstatic, but he didn't want to eat anything healthy. I'm going to go mad taking care of him."

"You could always ask Ku-" However, the aging Hokage was cut off before he could even finish the word. Given who he was about to suggest, and who he was suggesting her to, it was little surprise.

"No. _Anyone_ but her." Minato crinkled his nose, obviously knowing who the Hokage was going to suggest. The old man may want them to get along, but with those two... it simply was not going to happen. She was just too... well, it just wasn't going to happen. So the Hokage continued gazing over the village, a small smile on his face.

"I will ask Kasumi to give you some pointers then. For now, Falcon has been called to the ANBU meeting in half an hour and it would be a bad idea if he were late. I'm sure Arashi will need some notice that you will be out for a while longer as well." Minato sighed and acquiesced, leaving through the door, unlike most visitors to the Hokage Tower.

Minato did want to wear that hat one day, but he hoped that the grandfatherly manner and meddling tendencies did not come along with it.

The next morning proved just as bad as the first, but for a different person. Arashi grinned over his breakfast – leftovers from the night before – at his guardian who now had vibrant pink hair. After the proper percentage had been taken out of his pay, Arashi still had almost two-thousand yen, which had been enough to buy a box of permanent pink hair dye and a bowl of Ichiraku ramen. The hair dye made its way into Minato's hair when the older blond was asleep and the man had been horrified to find the pink goop in his hair when he woke up.

It was, however, too late, and the jounin now had pink hair. Arashi's jumpsuit had been avenged.

Day after day went by as Arashi got into the swing of having a roommate. Minato always made breakfast, Arashi would pack both their lunches (pranking Minato's food was a death sentence), and for dinner they would either do take-out or Arashi would be invited to dine with Kasumi, Kiyoshi, and Anko. Usually those were nights when Minato had to be out of the apartment for one reason or another.

Each morning was devoted to training of some sort, though Minato usually had one of his two apprentices in individual training for the first hour of the morning to give the other time to lie in (or, in Arashi's case, run more laps around the village). He was disappointed to find out how bad Arashi's chakra control was, even though the boy could do any of the exercises he was given, they simply didn't help much with controlling how much chakra he used at any given time.

In the afternoon, they took one mission each day. Sometimes Arashi would make it easier by using his clones – especially for search-and-rescue missions (usually for pets) – while others he did the work honestly to help his muscle tone and make Kakashi stop glaring at him for doing all the work. No matter what they were done by five, and out of the Hokage Tower with their pay by six if not earlier.

The mission desk chuunin had all since learned that if Team Bed Head (a nickname given by Kasumi which, unfortunately, stuck) said they were done, they really were. The last time someone had contradicted Arashi, he had used the second variation of Konohamaru's jutsu and scarred the man for life by doing a yaoi jutsu of the man's son-to-be and Kabuto Yakushi (Hizashi Hyuuga would never be same after he saw _that_).

Sometimes after missions, Asuma would come by the Tower and try to coerce Arashi and Kakashi into playing with him or helping him with what he had just learned in the Academy. Kakashi never gave in, but soon it was quite common for Arashi to find himself playing ninja with Asuma. Actually, he was strongly reminded of the boy's nephew, in just about everything they did together. Maybe part of it was Kakashi asking why he bothered _playing_ ninja when he already was one, but Arashi didn't really care.

He just liked that he could hang out with someone who wouldn't grow up to be creepy and who was fun to be with. It was also a plus that, once Asuma's friends got used to his eyes, none of them asked any questions about them.

It was a bit over a month into training that Arashi discovered anything new about his circumstances. He was having a "spar" against Minato (meaning he was attacking and Minato was telling him every little mistake in learning the new style that the older blond made for his miniature students) and got a bit annoyed. So he started running in a wide circle around his teacher, and started gathering chakra.

Or he tried to gather chakra. It just... wouldn't come. Arashi could see no reason for it to not work, yet as he ran around he couldn't even _touch_ the well of chakra he knew himself to possess. He had gathered some at the start of the spar and had already used it up, but now...

Nothing. Not the tiniest tickle of energy waiting to be molded.

He stopped in his tracks, confused, and found that he could access the energy once more, but that was when he realized a major effect of what had happened. The old toad _had_ said that, to gather sage chakra, one must be completely still, and obviously the whole drowning-in-frog-oil thing had affected his chakra somehow. He could mold chakra while walking – this had been done before after all – but not while running.

Like the dutiful little student he was, Arashi told Minato... well, okay, he actually gaped for a moment and started swearing liking a sailor having a bad day. Minato swatted him for swearing and then asked what was wrong, though the answer was unexpected.

"You'd be swearing a blue streak too if you found out that you couldn't mold chakra while running," Arashi snapped. Internally he was cursing the Kyuubi and the toads and anything else he could curse, though he kept it to himself. He didn't need to be hit again. Even if it was just a playful swat my shinobi proportions, it still hurt his kid-sized skull.

Minato, of course, decided that this bore looking into and asked Arashi a series of questions and had him do various activities while trying to mold chakra, see how much chakra he could mold at once and store without using, and other tests that Arashi certainly wouldn't have thought of. Though it was nice to know that he couldn't mold chakra while doing a handstand, he hardly found that at all useful, though Minato was fascinated. They ended up spending the morning doing such tests while Minato set Kakashi to do some chakra control exercises.

"Right, you two can have the afternoon off today, I've got some things to do," which was a lie, or it would have been before they found out about Arashi's little handicap. "Keep out of trouble and don't forget to do your independent exercises, both of you." And with that he shunshined away.

_Probably to show the Hokage what we found out_, Arashi thought to himself. It occurred suddenly that, when they first met, the Hokage had said they would talk again, which they most certainly had not done in the past month and a half. Curious, but the Hokage was a busy guy. _Who am I kidding? He'll take any excuse to get away from paperwork, and a suspicious kid with funny eyes is as good an excuse as any._

With nothing else to do that day until Asuma and Anko were excused from the Academy for the day, Arashi double-checked that his bento was still in the backpack he had brought with him and went to the training ground that he memorial stone sat in. Sitting on the middle log, the one that he had been tied to during the super-secret genin test, he picked at the leftover yakisoba thoughtfully.

This entire thing was, admittedly, unexpected. But to have that sort of limitation on his chakra? It was a necessity for a shinobi to be able to work on the go, especially being able to gather chakra as they ran. As a matter of course, Arashi always molded a lot before doing anything – it was simply how his coils worked – but any that he had not purposefully gathered beforehand, it seemed, was inaccessible to anything other than regular body functions. It could not be consciously utilized.

After a few minutes of not eating – certainly a new thing for him – Arashi simply se his bento op top of the log and walked over to the memorial stone. There were hardly any names on it in comparison to what he was used to. Mind, he'd rarely taken the time to look, but he could tell that hardly any names were present; the stone had only been added a few months ago with the beginning stirrings of the Great Shinobi War between Stone and Leaf that would start in about a year's time.

Naruto had never really paid much attention to History at the Academy. After all, what did the actions of a bunch of dead people have to do with him? But he knew some things. With a very slight sigh, he traced Jiraiya's name where he knew it had been added, then that of the current Hokage just an inch above that. They were heroes of the village.

"Hey kid, are you going to eat your lunch or let the flies get at it?" Arashi jolted about and fell on his butt in front of the monument. Not even two steps away from him was a... well, he assumed she was a girl, given the upper anatomy that men tended to lack.

She wasn't too tall, nor too short and looked to be around the same age as Minato, maybe a little younger. Her hair was chopped short, the same style as Gaara's had been and the red only a bit more vibrant. Cheery green eyes looked directly at Arashi, completely unfazed by Arashi's own strange eyes. She was slim and energetic, but for some reason she was dressed in boy's clothing, from the khaki shorts to the dark gray t-shirt.

But she _did_ have orange sandals, and for that Arashi found her a worthy person to associate himself with. The chuunin vest she wore gave him the impression that she probably already knew about him, but that didn't much matter.

"I'm not really hungry," Arashi shrugged. He wasn't, even though Minato had put him through his paces and he should be positively ravenous by this point. Quite simply, he was too preoccupied.

"Nonsense, a growing boy like you needs to eat," she waved away his words like they were nothing. To her, they probably were. "Up now kid, or I shall subject you to the worst torture known to man, got that?" Arashi gave her a rather deadpan expression that probably looked strange on the face of a child, but he really just didn't feel like doing anything. He wasn't the depressive type, wouldn't let himself be, but the whole "can't mold chakra on the run" thing could make or break his career as a shinobi. "Don't say I didn't warn you!"

And suddenly Arashi found himself being tickled. He flailed and most certainly did _not_ scream, but he had been lifted in the air by the kunoichi and so his flailing did little to avail him. However, he did managed to still himself for a moment and he conjured a single shadow clone before swapping out with it.

And clones weren't ticklish. It must be something to do with the fact that they didn't actually have nerve endings. The kunoichi stopped tickling as soon as she noticed that her subject was no longer protesting. Then she looked from the clone in her arms to the boy on the other side of the memorial stone and back. Several times.

"Okay... I'm impressed," she admitted. "So, what's your name, brat?"

"Arashi Kazama," a month and a half of practice made him wonder if Naruto Uzumaki ever existed.

"Oh, your one of the small genin that Namikaze is training, eh?" The woman snickered while Arashi perked an eyebrow. So she didn't like Minato. "You poor kid, I feel sorry for anyone who has to spend too much time with that wet blanket. You can call me Kushi. Maybe I'll show you some ninjutsu, okay? I heard from Kasumi that you're a ninjutsu type, so maybe I'll teach you something."

Arashi immediately perked up. "Seriously?" He liked being taught by Minato, but the older blond really was too serious most of the time. And he hadn't learned a single new ninjutsu since coming back to the past.

"Yup!" Kushi (it probably wasn't her full name) assured him. "But you need to eat your lunch first."

So he did.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"So the seals are all air and earth based, except the last one, 'tiger', right?" Arashi asked his newest tutor. Kushi – for he still didn't know her real name – grinned and nodded at him and the child went through the seals quickly before ending with the fire seal of tiger that was common to many Leaf shinobi. With his target in mind, he molded his chakra into the proper form and was pleased to find himself two feet behind Kushi.

Operation Learn Shunshin: success! As was operation sneak up behind Kushi of course.

"You catch on pretty quickly, 'Rashi," Kushi grinned down at him. "I must say you've got my flair for learning ninjutsu, and you're not even six you little imp. I feel like an old maid next to you." She was over dramatic and chipper and definitely mischievous. Arashi could learn to get along with this girl. "So, you got any interesting jutsu you might want to show little old me?"

"Do you know the Shadow Clone?" Arashi asked. That was really the only jutsu he knew that he could say he knew. His other best technique was the Rasengan (and variants), but he couldn't exactly go showing that one about. What if Minato had already started developing it? What if he had already completed it? Well, according to Kakashi, Naruto was the first one to complete it, but Arashi knew what he meant.

"Please, that's a kinjutsu," Kushi sighed. "I mean, all the upper ranks know it, and I've heard that most can pick up the seals easily enough, but there's no way a mere chuunin would be allowed to know it, let alone an outsider like me." She was positively pouting. "Kasumi mentioned that you could do it when she was picking up Anko from class last week, but you must be exhausted from training and stuff all day, especially after making one of them just before lunch _and_ learning shunshin. I mean, there's no way you could –"

Arashi caught that she wasn't meaning to challenge him, but he took the challenge regardless and in one seal – he could mold the rest of the technique without the rest and had been doing so for a long time after all – he brought forth one shadow clone. It wasn't surprised to exist and instead set to stretching out its imaginary muscles.

Kushi whistled low in surprise. "Oh, I'm impressed," she grinned. "How did you learn to do that, anyway? Shadow Clones are more difficult to create than Water Clones. That one is pretty easy if you're near a body of water. I've never heard of any kid that can make any solid clones other than you though."

Even though Kushi was treating him as a child, it wasn't the same way everyone else did. Asuma and Anko treated him like some sort of super-child, Minato was far too careful with him in any circumstance, the Hokage, in the one time they met, treated him the same as any kid on the street if a bit more cautiously... and Kushi was treating him as if he were a prized pupil and yet still somewhat equal.

The pupil bit he could understand, since she was in her second year as an Academy teacher, but the equal bit was a surprise. No one really treated him as an equal. His classmates had always treated him as an inferior (except Hinata, but she was kind of weird), teachers had treated him as both a nuisance and an idiot, though as a genin they at least taught him properly. Even Iruka hadn't treated him as an equal, but a bit more like a pet project and little brother along with some "idiot" thrown in.

Kushi had taught him something and honestly expected him to be capable of something she was not. She may have gone into teacher mode to teach him to use the body flicker technique, but now he was teaching her, and she was just as attentive as he had been.

It was actually kind of disturbing, but Arashi just grinned and started teaching her the seal order. It was a lot harder to learn Shadow Clones – especially since Arashi hadn't been able to read all the kanji on the scroll and had "filled in the gaps" on his own. Improvisation probably wasn't the best way to learn a technique, but it was his best skill, and a prized one at that.

"I don't remember exactly what the scroll said," he admitted, "but since Shadow Clones is my signature move I'm really good at it. It only took me about three hours to learn it, too!"

"Okay, if you're telling the truth, I can see why they gave you to Namikaze," Kushi grumped. "He may be a stick in the mud, but he probably knows more about teaching a prodigy effectively than anyone but maybe Orochimaru-sama. Don't tell him I said that though or he might start to think that I _like_ him or something." She wrinkled her nose, but Arashi was more caught up on the mention of Orochimaru.

Right, everyone else was alive, of course Orochimaru would be. He praised whatever gods there were for not having run into the snake-faced bastard, else he didn't know what he would have done. Probably tried to use a Rasengan on the man, get defeated, and then be tossed into the ANBU interrogation cell for attacking him unprovoked. And, if the Rasengan had already been created, Minato would want to know how Arashi knew it. So it was a very good thing that Arashi had yet to meet the evil member of the Legendary Sannin.

That thought made him wonder if he would meet Jiraiya at some point – the man was the sensei to his new sensei after all – but dismissed it. As much as he would love the reassurance of Jiraiya's continued existence, he also didn't know how he would react and how that might give him away as someone other than who he was.

So Arashi continued to teach Kushi how to use his favorite jutsu. His only experience with teaching was with teaching Konohamaru how to do Sexy (which the kid couldn't do quite right because he couldn't use Arashi's henge), so he wasn't as good at it as Kushi, but he still managed. Still, the sun was hovering over the treetops, threatening to drop into darkness before she really got a handle on it.

"You did it!" Arashi cheered happily and he hugged Kushi in favor of her clone, which was getting hugged by _his_ clone. "You must have a lot of stamina. I don't think most shinobi can train for so long." And he had been teaching her – or trying – for the better part of the afternoon.

"Yeah, it's genetic," she grinned, a bead of sweat slowly falling down her face as she released the Clone. "I'm the first in my family to become a kunoichi here, but back in Whirlpool we were a big shinobi family. High stamina runs in my family's blood. Though I gotta say, we have nothing on you short-stuff." Arashi decided not to take offense. "We should do this again sometime. I'm teaching tomorrow, but maybe next weekend or something. Someone with a lot of chakra like you have needs to learn some good jutsu after all."

Arashi grinned foxily – an expression mirrored by Kushi – and would have spoken were it not for an unexpected interruption.

"Uzumaki! What do you think you're doing?" Arashi wheeled around, wide eyed as Minato appeared on the center log. What? How? He hadn't said his real name and suddenly Minato knew it... but _how_?

"A-ano, Minato-sensei, I can explain," Arashi tried to get out, but he stammered as he said it. They had found out they lied about his name somehow; what else had they found out? Did they knew he was really fifteen? Or that he was a jinchuuriki?

"No need, 'Rashi," Kushi waved her hand dismissively and glared at Minato. "Honestly Namikaze, you think that you can dictate who I spend my time with? If I want to spend my time with your student and teach him when you're busy to bother, then it's hardly any of your business, now is it? Apparently you haven't taught this little chakra monster a single bit of ninjutsu in the whole month you've had him in your grasp, and I taught him to shunshin in only an hour. What a waste!" She sounded quite proud of herself, almost as if Minato _hadn't_ just called Arashi by another name.

"I had important business to attend to, Uzumaki," Minato sounded just an inch from snapping, and his face looked more serious even than it had been upon discovering Arashi's handicap. "I assigned Arashi to train independently on what I have been training him in. He needs to develop his taijutsu before learning any more ninjutsu than he already knows. I don't need you filling his head with ninjutsu that he is too undeveloped to learn."

"Oh, so teaching a five year old how to kill is okay, but not how to get away? Is that what you're saying?" Arashi was suddenly quite lost in the argument between Kushi and Minato. It was almost as if Minato hadn't been calling him out a moment ago.

"I... you know that isn't what I meant!"

"Really? Because that's sure as hell what you said, Namikaze!"

"You guys sound like an old married couple," Arashi stated succinctly. That caused Minato to choke on his retort and actually _fall off_ the log he had perched himself on. Kushi wrinkled her nose and made a fake gagging noise before laughing at her foe's plight. Arashi could feign ignorance for the moment, considering he really was ignorant as to what they were arguing over.

"Gods, what have you done to the kid, Uzumaki?" Minato groaned as he stood from the dirt. "You've contaminated my student, haven't you?"

This time Kushi really did laugh. "Nonsense, he was like that already," she was now poking fun at the blond man. "Nope, all I did was teach him a jutsu and let him have some fun for once, not that an old stick in the mud like you would know what _that_ is. I thought maybe you'd learned to live a little when your hair was pink, but since I learned the kid did that..." Kushi eyed the now-short blond hair was disdain. Minato had it cut after two weeks, when he would have at least a little hair left. It was still hardly more than peach fuzz.

So it was Kushi that Minato was calling Uzumaki... but that couldn't be right, could it? No, no way in hell was that right! Then again, hadn't she said she was from Whirlpool? Not that Arashi had ever heard of such a place, but what if...

"I've had enough of this," Minato stated calmly, his face impenetrable. "Arashi, come on. We're getting Ichiraku for dinner. Lord Hokage gave me some free meal tickets for you; apparently Asuma carried along that I've prohibited you from eating it." Normally, a statement like that would have been slightly joking as Minato allowed himself to loosen up, but obviously he was not at all comfortable in the presence of Kushi.

"Yes Sensei," Arashi replied quickly. While it was rare for Minato to be completely serious, it did happen and it was best for Arashi to be at least less of a goof. Though it called for a good prank later that night or tomorrow morning. "Bye Kushi. See you later!"

Minato barely stayed long enough after that sentence for Arashi to gather chakra for the run before streaking off through the woods. The pace was a lot harder than any he had set previously, and Arashi had to use his newly learned shunshin to catch up at one point. After that he would have had to pause again to gather chakra if they weren't already on the roof across from Ichiraku.

That... was not an experience he was keen on repeated as his legs screamed in protest to the harsh treatment even as he knew a tiny bit of Kyuubi's chakra was fixing whatever damage had been done. It especially hurt when he jumped down to street level, though part of that was his headband – which had turned around on his neck from the breakneck run – bouncing up and smacking the back of his head. His legs still didn't like supporting him after that drop.

_Note to self_, Arashi sighed, _don't let Minato-sensei get pissed off. I am not a sprinter._

Still, the say was a success. He learned a new jutsu and got to have ramen for dinner. Now he just had to worry about his new handicap.

Arashi waited until Friday before asking what had been discovered about his new handicap. Not that he didn't want to ask before, and he hadn't forgotten, but he had _thought _that Minato would tell him without provocation. This turned out to not be the case, and after that he wasn't sure he wanted to ask until his teacher had cooled down from the incident with Kushi (apparently her full name was Kushina Uzumaki).

What he found out was neither good nor bad really, it just was. It had been postulated – whatever that meant – that his chakra behaved like sage chakra (he had a hard time not gawking at that), and they would just have to study it further. Arashi lamented this, but gave it and did all the training exercises that were asked of him and then some.

On Saturday he had some free time after that day's mission; dog walking. The only other option had been babysitting, which they were too young to do, and so Arashi had to deal with running away from a bunch of random dogs. Summon animals had no problem with him, but it seemed that the scent of the Kyuubi was still noticeable enough to regular animals, and they continued to dislike him quite a bit.

With the free time, he had been intending to go spend the afternoon with Asuma and Anko playing ninja (he promised) and then have dinner with Anko's family. Unfortunately, Anko had gotten sick, and Asuma had been invited to watch his older brother's team train, so Arashi had nothing to do unless he wanted to ask Minato for some extra training or something.

Luckily, fate intervened.

"Hey there, 'Rashi!" Kushina called out as she landed beside him from a roof. He didn't wheel around like he might have since it was a crowded street, but he did jump slightly. "What have you been up to since Monday, short stuff?"

"Training, learning to never let you and and Minato-sensei be in the same room, kicking Kakashi's ass... the usual," more the unusual, but Arashi just laughed along with Kushina. She was Kushina Uzumaki; at the very least, she was his aunt if not his mother. He had family and Kushina at least seemed to care, though he couldn't imagine that she didn't. It was an infantile hope to expect anything from her, but already Kushina was added to the list of precious people that Arashi had been building since he arrived. Kasumi, Anko, the Third, Asuma, Asuma's brother (Masato), Minato, Kakashi (if only for what he would be rather than what he was), and Kushina now made up that list.

"That's better than nothing, I suppose," Kushina feigned boredom. "Up for an extra Saturday class?" Were it not for the absolutely vicious grin, Arashi might have said no. As it was, he nodded quickly. He obviously got more than just his stamina from the Uzumaki side. "Wonderful! Now, we'll need sixteen live eels, twelve boxes of jell-o, some piano wire, a pack of explosive notes, water balloons, a pail of orange paint, and Councilmen Danzou's panties."

Arashi could scarcely imagine what they were going to do, but he was certainly going to enjoy it.

"You are _so_ immature!" Minato snapped at them both when he had caught up. Arashi and Kushina were, by this point, hiding out in Kushina's house – for she did have a house, and all by herself apparently – and she was trying to teach Arashi how to play shogi. He was doing pretty badly, but he could see why Shikamaru played so much. It was good for strategy, just not the sort of strategy that Arashi was good at.

Arashi was tempted to point out that he was five and therefore allowed to be mature, and really seventeen was hardly a mature age either, but he rather liked Kushina's reply better.

"I'm not immature, I just know how to have fun," she retorted easily. She set down her pawn and sent Minato a withering look, as if _he_ were the one who ought to be chided for the prank that was currently irking the council. "Can't say the same about you, Namikaze."

"To be fair," Arashi interjected in a stage whisper, fighting back a laugh as he came up with his support for his first-ever relative, "I think he's gay and trying to hide it from his old sensei." The horrified look on Minato's face made it so _so_ worth it.

He tried to sputter a denial. "Y-you! You know I'm not... I mean, that _jutsu_ you used..." he looked completely helpless, and both Arashi and Kushina collapsed into laughter. "You have no idea what you're saying... Uzumaki, why did you put him up to this? You're corrupting my student _again_!"

"I already told you, I don't corrupt children, I _teach_ them," Kushina gasped out, still laughing at the look of utter horror that had "graced" the face of her house guest. "And all I've taught this particular kid is how to use shunshin no jutsu and a very good application of some of his hard-learned shinobi skills. If he had a proper jounin teacher, say, one who pulled more than a single year at the academy, I might not feel quite so impelled to take his education out of your hands."

"Stealing the underwear of a council member and stuffing it full of eels and jell-o is _not_ a good application," it was getting to the point where Arashi didn't want to see them in the same room together... but he rarely had such high quality entertainment! He could wait until they were at the point when they would be blowing up.

"Maybe not, but it's a good lesson on infiltration and espionage," Kushina started listing with a smirk, "and this kid seems to a be an expert at hiding himself. I spilled orange paint on him you know, and when the ANBU were looking for us he managed to hide from them almost effortlessly. He didn't even try using a henge to hide, smart kid that he is. The piano wire trick with the altered explosive notes was also apparently his first lesson on sealing, though I kinda figured you would have taught him some. Yes, highly useful life skills, I should think."

"And the orange-paint filled water balloons that you used as whoopee cushions? What purpose did that serve?" He sounded highly doubtful.

"Entertainment," was all Kushina replied. She then moved another pawn. "Check mate, Midget. I also taught him to play shogi."

"Again?! But I..." then Arashi paused and grinned. "Liar! I can still do this!" And he moved his knight which blocked the advance of her pawn. "Check. So there."

"See? I taught him a lot today, now get out of my house before I call the Uchiha police on you for breaking and entering," Kushina sent a final grin at the man and turned her attention back to teaching. She was very good at that. "Okay, so now that I'm in check, you -"

"Do you honestly think that I'm not going to tell the Hokage who pranked the council, do you?" Minato deadpanned.

"As my sensei and guardian, since I'm below the mean age of Academy graduates, you're responsible for all my misdemeanors, aren't you?" Arashi asked innocently, blue eyes wide in a sort of freaky-puppy gaze. Minato shuddered and looked away, though he did nod. "So then if we get turned in it's you and Kushi who will get punished. What if they make you serve the punishment together?"

Both of them gagged at this, but Minato tried to maintain a serious face. "It's... even that won't stop me from turning you both in," he persisted, though he didn't look entirely dedicated to his answer. "I can survive being even around _her_ even if it means that she's getting her just desserts for what you two have done. And don't think I'm not going to run you ragged for doing it, either." He was gaining steam; not good.

"But what if the punishment is clean-up duty? I mean, I know you're gay, but I didn't think you'd be that happy to handle Danzou's underwear," that seemed to be the last straw as Minato went pale, then green, and vanished mysteriously from the room while Kushina had fallen over from her seated position on the floor and laughed heartily.

"You, Arashi Kazama, are a gift from the gods," she snickered. "What was he talking about though, your jutsu?" The glint in her eye spoke of evil. Arashi certainly considered not telling – they tended to not like that he invented something as pervy as Sexy jutsu, and as far as anyone knew he had also invented yuri jutsu and yaoi jutsu – but he decided he might as well. The news of his yaoi jutsu probably had only not reached her because people were afraid she might use it; such is the curse of being a master prankster.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone," he said first. The grin he got in reply was a good response; it meant she would use it in front of everyone, but not tell. "And promise not to hit me." He rubbed a phantom bump from one of the many different women who had been quite irate regarding his technique. Kushina nodded readily.

With no other reason to stall, Arashi drew a breath and called out "Sexy jutsu!" In a puff of smoke he transformed into the female form that he had practiced many times and that had inspired so many nosebleeds that it wasn't even funny. Several people's worth of blood had been lost to Naruko after all, and it seemed that Kushina was suitably impressed... and not violent, surprisingly enough.

"Wow, you did a really good job with the proportions, though any girl that well endowed would have some major difficulties with running I think," she nodded walking around the female before her. Arashi was more than a little shocked considering he had never actually had his form critiqued. But he was glad to be tall enough to look Kushina in the eye now, even if the women thought his eyes were somewhere south of the henge form's eyes.

"Kushi!" He harrumphed in the girlish voice that came with the form, crossing his arms over the exposed bosom. "That's really creepy, you know? And my eyes are up here." He was fighting a blush. Did she _have_ to look at the henge like that.

"Oh very funny brat!" Kushina swiped her hand low, to where it would have just barely swiped the top of Arashi's head normally... and instead came in contact with very naked and very female flesh. The smacking noise was also rather audible, and Kushina's surprise was evident. As another test she pulled on the long pigtail on the left.

Quite fed up by being gawked at, Arashi released the henge and another cloud of smoke masked his transformation back to a fully clothed and pint-sized male. And he had no missed not being short, too. But he had years to go before he was that tall again.

It was then that Kushina started worshiping him, so it was probably a good thing that he _did_ teach her his version of the henge, or he would have had his only known relative mad at him.

"So what's up with you and Minato-sensei, anyway?" Arashi inquired when they had returned to their game. He was honestly curious as to what made his sensei hate her and vice a versa. Were the Uzumaki traditionally opposed to the Namikaze? But the Uzumaki were apparently from some country called Whirlpool, so that couldn't really be the motive unless it was from before the settling of the shinobi villages. Maybe Minato hadn't always been a closet pervert and had been openly perverted before Jiraiya left the village or -

"We were in the same class in the Academy," Kushina shrugged. "He was top in everything for the boys, me for the girls. Back in second year, my hair was really long, and he said it looked pretty; so I cut it short and haven't grown it out since."

"You hate each other because of your _hair_," Arashi deadpanned, not getting the connection. A feud... over her hairstyle? _Seriously_?

"No, that was just the start of our Academy rivalry," Kushina corrected. "We were always at each other's throats, ever since my mother and I arrived in the Leaf, and he always hated that an outsider, someone with no blood ties to the Leaf, could be just as good as he was. He always said that mom and I had to be spies since we were refugees, and by the time we graduated we were as close to enemies as allies could be. Be glad you weren't around back then; they were a _lot_ worse."

Arashi had a hard time not gaping as he nodded. So the Fourth was a xenophobe... not even a war hero yet, and he had been distrustful of someone from outside the village walls that early in his life. What must he think of Arashi then?

"Well, let's get back to our game," Kushina smiled and moved a pawn. "Your turn."

Arashi sighed and decided he could think later. He had to get his butt kicked at shogi again.

Weeks passed and feel back into routine, except for the time with Kushina, which was always a surprise. She never seemed to have any schedule that she followed except that she taught four out of seven days a week. No progress had been made on Arashi's handicap either, as no one had found Jiraiya yet. Minato was considering asking the toads to give the perverted sage a message, but he claimed that they didn't respect him enough yet since he couldn't summon Gamabunta like Jiraiya could.

The first chuunin exam of Arashi and Kakashi's genin days passed without Minato even mentioning them, instead Arashi heard from Kasumi when Kiyoshi and his new genin team – Asuma's older brother's team – were sent and returned unsuccessfully. It was towards the end of the month delay between the initial exam and the one that would decide who made chuunin in all the countries that Minato finally decreed them prepared for a C-rank mission.

It had been five months since Arashi arrived in the past, and he felt that they _more_ than deserved it. He and Kakashi had been working so hard for those five months that he had to wonder why the silver haired child's older counterpart hadn't required the same of Team 7. Team Bed Head – with Minato's hair back to a more acceptable length – were given a patrol mission on the border between the Land of Fire and Land of Mist. It was a very safe mission since the River Country was no threat to the Leaf what so ever.

Still, Arashi packed diligently the night before leaving, a single extra outfit and other necessities for the two weeks away. The next morning he was up when Minato started their breakfast, and he drank the miso without complaint, too excited. Since they would still be in transit come lunch, Arashi packed bento for all three members of the group so they could continue on quickly.

Or he would have packed three, but Minato stopped him before he could start the third. "Don't bother packing one for 'Kashi," Minato had a sort of half-sad half-nervous expression. "Something happened yesterday when he went home... it slipped my mind... but he can't make it. We'll see him when we get back from the mission though, okay?"

"Something" happened. That meant either an injury or someone died. It was something shinobi knew, when "something" happened, and Minato wouldn't expect Arashi to know that. If it were an injury then Minato probably would have brought him to visit Kakashi or something, so someone close to his fellow apprentice must have died, or nearly, and there was only one person who Kakashi was close to.

Let it never be said that Arashi had no skills with logic. While he was better with Naruto logic, he could follow a train of thought to the end – provided nothing shiny caught his attention that is. Those shiny things were simply too attention drawing...

But that was besides the point. While Minato wasn't looking, Arashi created a Shadow Clone which then proceeded to make up a third bento and jump out the picture window at the front of the apartment. Kakashi would need a friend, even if they weren't actually friends. Especially considering there was no one else to comfort the most serious third of Team Bed Head, though Minato came in a close second for that one.

Tucking both bento into his bag, Arashi waited for his sensei to finish his breakfast patiently before they left for the West gate.

Two weeks alone with Minato, without any fun interludes, on a mission. And Kakashi was going to be home alone but for a couple hours – if that – when he would have a clone for company.

It didn't seem right, but there was nothing else for it. Arashi couldn't do anything short of his duty, and he'd already gone beyond that by sending that clone.

Only time would tell if that would help Kakashi at all.

"What do you want?" Snapped Kakashi. He was sitting on the corner of his bed, simply staring at the wall, but the clone couldn't really be surprised that the genin had caught him so quickly. "You're supposed to be on the mission with Minato-sensei." What did surprise the clone was that Kakashi spoke to it; he usually didn't talk to Arashi since he didn't hold as much stock by the rules as Kakashi did.

"He is, they should be out of the village by now," the clone nodded. "He thought you could use some company, but he couldn't leave the mission. So... here I am. I hope you don't mind much." Kakashi didn't answer, and the clone just sighed. "I brought you a bento. You can eat it now or later, but I thought you wouldn't be thinking of your own needs at the moment." No response again. "There's also a thermos of eggplant soup."

Kakashi nodded slowly in thanks and the clone set both the bento and the thermos down on Kakashi's book case. It was sparse, not that this was much of a surprise. Kakashi was a five – almost six – year old child and not one to care over much about reading. There were a couple of jutsu scrolls though, and the shinobi hand book.

"What's that?" It asked, seeing the sheathed blade in Kakashi's lap.

"The White Fang," Kakashi responded. That was a name Arashi had always heard in correspondence with a person though. The Leaf's White Fang, a man who had been on par with the Sannin until his fall into ignominy. Jiraiya had spoken highly of him... while drunk. "My father's chakra blade."

"It must be nice to have something of his," the clone stated. He knew better than to be too soft on the grieving. Pity was looked upon with scorn by the shinobi world, because it cheapened death. On his way in he had heard someone say that Sakumo Hatake had committed sepukku to expunge the shame of a failed mission nearly a year past.

Kakashi didn't seem to appreciate the effort though, and glared up at Arashi. "What do _you_ know? You don't know what it's like!" The standard proclamation of someone who didn't _want_ to be understood. Arashi may not know much about psychology – especially for kids – but he knew that Sasuke was like that too. Except there was no one for Kakashi to exact his revenge on.

"Of course I don't, Arashi never knew his parents to begin with," but that wasn't entirely true as Arashi was now fairly certain that Kushina was his mother since she was the last of the Uzumaki, and he had his suspicions regarding his father. "Doesn't mean I can't give you lunch though."

The younger of the two – though by birthday he was almost a month older that the original, and the clone was technically twelve minutes and thirty-four seconds old (but that wasn't the point) – slumped and went back to looking at the chakra blade resting across his knees. "Why are you here?"

"Well, partly because you need to eat," the clone sounded so reasonable, didn't it? "And partly because while it's said that those who break the rules are trash, anyone who abandons a friend is far worse than trash." It consciously quoted Kakashi himself, and unconsciously quoted a boy who had only started at the Academy in April.

Kakashi didn't speak to it again, but he didn't try to dispel it either. The clone stayed as company for the newfound orphan until it ran out of chakra at noon the next day.

When its memories loaded into Arashi's head, the genin couldn't keep the sad look from his face.


End file.
